A song-cycle life of Aisha, youngest wife of the prophet Mohammed, co-written by the Armenian-German guitarist and Julia Hulsmann, performed together with her trio and Serbian singer Yelena Kuljic.

With new cohorts from Finland and Denmark — electric bass and guitar bringing a new tension and urgency — this is by turns fierce and hard, swinging and sparse, lyrical and mournful.

Leading his New York Quintet.

‘The quintessence of experience of sorts. It has some free playing, some reflection, and we also played Komeda’s Kattorna. Among my records this is the one I listened to the most after recording.’

Beautiful, balladesque quartet album — moody, blue and restrained.

Melodic, texturally-inventive, often mesmeric pieces for both piano and prepared piano, including SB’s own compositions and spontaneous improvisations, as well as two versions of the traditional Arab song Lamma Bada Yatathanna.

Silvio Rodríguez, Bartók and Satie, in amongst original compositions and improvisations, beautifully elucidated by Stenson’s uncluttered lyricism, Anders Jormin’s arco double bass and Jon Fält’s impressionistic drumming. Mompou’s Canción Y Danza succeeds perfectly this way.

Engrossing, luminous, abstract pianism from Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell cohort.

‘Music, its forms and rituals, has the power to bring us close to distant civilizations. Armenia offers a special case: a sacred culture that was preserved and presented at its fullest flowering through the work of one man, the scholar-monk Soghomon Soghomonian, known under his religious name as Komitas.’
Duduk, blul, santur, tar, saz, dap, kamancha, kanon, oud…

The Armenian pianist in a quartet setting, meditating on ancient folk melodies (including a couple of compositions by Komitas), between jazz and ambient.

Armenian sacred music from the fifth to nineteenth centuries — chants, hymns and sharakans — in settings for choir and piano.
‘Extraordinarily beautiful… Hamasyan uses the characteristic, Eastern-hued Armenian modes to summon up an ancient world. It’s very different to Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble’s million-selling Officium, but if you like that, you’ll love this’ (The Independent).